Summer Meadow
by HawkRider
Summary: For raberbagirl. This is what happens when a seemingly normal day is disrupted by Yuffie. It's just bad luck for her how everything turned out. Zack/Aeris


**For raberbagirl.**

**This isn't my first Zack/Aeris, thankfully. My first attempt let me know that I wasn't bad at this pairing...**

**For those of you who don't know, Aeris is Aerith, as requested by raberbagirl.**

**Last note, this was inspired by a couple of the themes from my fic _Hollow Radiance_, but you don't need to have read it.**

* * *

Aeris couldn't have been happier with how the restoration had gone. It had taken three years, but they had managed it in the end. A little faster than they had expected, actually.

Since then, everything had changed. Cloud and Tifa had left, heading back to their home World. Leon was still defending the town, working on heavy duty jobs when everything was clear. Cid was the chief engineer in the Gummi Hanger, programming extra defences in his free time. Yuffie had moved to Destiny Islands, claiming that it was her 'optimum living environment'. All the while, the Gullwings had left in search of treasure all over the Worlds. Merlin had 'joined forces' (according to Cid) with Leon's fiancée Rinoa to open magic shop.

In the meantime, Aeris had opened her own shop, a florist. _Summer Meadow_ was the most famous flower shop in Radiant Garden, and what made people amazed was the fact that the shop had never expanded. Despite the estimated one million munny that was paid every month. Aeris was content.

* * *

Aeris smiled. It was a Wednesday, early morning. The shop had only just opened for the day, so there was only the one person in the shop, and that was a visiting Yuffie.

"Come on! It's been three years and you still haven't met anyone?" She was currently yelling.

"I'm happy as I am Yuffie." Aeris smiled, trimming back a threatening flower in one of her window boxes, carefully placing the flower in her pocket, despite the fact that it was soon to be composted.

"Oh no you're not!" Yuffie disagreed. "Even Squall's engaged!" Suddenly, she winced as if hit. "Leon, sorry."

"You still do that?" Aeris chuckled slightly, taking the pliers back behind the counter.

"I spent seven years being forced to call him Leon. His 'therapy' lingers!" Yuffie pouted.

The bell on the door rang. "Welcome!" Aeris chimed, completely ignoring Yuffie. "Is there anything you need?"

"No thanks. Not right now." The young woman smiled at Aeris, before turning to look between the lines of flowers.

"Are you just going to ignore me?" Yuffie half shrieked.

"Quiet. You'll disturb the customer." Aeris said, slightly annoyed. "I'll cast Silence if I need to." Yuffie looked fearful, remembering the week she'd spent mute at the hands of that spell.

"That... Won't be necessary..." Yuffie whispered, waving her hands with vigour.

The bell rang again, and Aeris turned back to the door. "Welcome." She smiled.

"Hi." This time it was a man, with spiky black hair that almost reminded her of Sora's, only with two bangs on either side of his face, as did the rest of his face. The boyish looks and ridiculously blue eyes...

She blinked to clear her head, focusing on her work instead.

"Could you help me with something?" He scratched the back of his head, looking slightly embarrassed to be asking for help. "I need a bouquet."

"Of course. What for?"

"Well, there's a girl I like, and I want a bouquet for when I ask her out." He smiled, goofily.

"All right? Any specific flowers you would like?" Aeris began to plan the flowers in her head.

"To be honest, I have no clue. Make it surprising." He headed for a corner of the shop, and randomly began to do squats.

Aeris began to wander, plucking the odd flower out of the various vases that lay waiting for her own bouquets. She chose a modest design that she loved, a blue rose surrounded by pot marigold. She wrapped it in a translucent red wrapping, before taking a tag with a print of bluebells.

"You can stop with the squats now." Aeris chuckled, earning a grin from the man.

"Thanks." He grinned, looking at the tag. "Can I borrow a pen?" Aeris gestured to the selection she always kept in case of this, which happened a lot. The man scribbled something on the tag, the tucked it gently between two of the marigolds. Then he handed it to Aeris. "See you!" He gave a salute, and left.

Yuffie looked on in shock.

Aeris gently pulled out the tag, smiling at the message. _'Hey, how about one date?'_, followed by a name and number.

"Aeris, if you do not go for it, I will make you pay." Yuffie spelled it out.

Aeris merely smiled. "Yuffie, you haven't fallen for anyone yet, have you?" Her grin was almost evil. Yuffie paled. "It looks like you're the only one of us left." Aeris slipped the tag into her pocket, heading into the back of the shop to get a vase for the bouquet.

Yuffie just sighed, praying that luck would come her way soon.

* * *

**Well, this certainly didn't go as I expected, but I'm not complaining. It probably turned out better than it would have otherwise...**

**But anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this (even though it pretty much turned out as platonic Aeris/Yuffie...)**

**Well, once again, I hope that you liked!**


End file.
